Identification of metabolically important factors secreted by muscles during exercise

Type 2 diabetes is caused by a strong resistance to the hormone insulin in the body's tissues and a reduced production of insulin in the pancreas. Exercise affects the muscles, increasing insulin sensitivity and preventing the onset of type 2 diabetes. However, exercise has effects on almost every organ in the body through the need to adapt them to the increased mechanical, metabolic and thermoregulatory demands of increased body work. Skeletal muscles are known to secrete specific proteins, called myokines, to communicate this to other organs including the adipose tissue. This project focuses on systematically identifying factors that are secreted by muscles during exercise and that are important for increased metabolism in the body. These factors can be proteins but also other substances such as various metabolites. By combining cellular models of exercise with organ models (intact muscles) and with serum from humans (both healthy and type 2 diabetes patients) who have undergone short exercise sessions, we will be able to identify factors that are important in humans and in type 2 diabetes. Ultimately, these factors may form the basis for new biomarkers of response to exercise and new treatments for type 2 diabetes.